Neil Patterson

Neil Patterson "is Chairman and CEO of Neil Patterson Productions, which produces multiple-media projects for formal and informal science education. He has managed many of the leading publishing houses in the U.S. including Freeman, Norton, Worth, and Benjamin. In 2005 he won an Emmy for the five-part PBS documentary DNA: The Secret of Life, made by Neil Patterson Productions in collaboration with Windfall Films and James D. Watson to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Watson and Crick's discovery of the double-helical structure of DNA.

"NPP-Windfall currently has another two multifaceted productions under development. Life, produced in collaboration with E. O. Wilson, addresses the subject of biodiversity and conservation. Immortal Longings, produced in collaboration with Pulitzer Prize winner Jonathan Weiner and Nobel Laureates Sir Paul Nurse, Harold Varmus and Eric Kandel, addresses the biology of aging.

"From 1980 to 1984, Patterson was President and CEO of W. H. Freeman and Company and Co-Founder, President and CEO of Scientific American Books. From 1977 to 1980 he was Director of W.W. Norton and Company's College Division. Between 1966 and 1977, Patterson served as Co-Founder, Vice President and Editorial Director of Worth Publishers. He began his publishing career with McGraw-Hill, Canada, and served there as Editorial Director. He moved to New York in 1962 to become co-founder of W. A. Benjamin (now Benjamin-Cummings), where he served as Vice President and Editor-in-Chief until 1966.

"In addition to his activities with Neil Patterson Productions and the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation, Neil Patterson is Chairman of Redwing Media. With Redwing, he is working on an introductory college-level biology textbook with related media, based on the new life sciences curriculum at Harvard University. The project is being written by a team of 10-15 members of the Harvard faculty, under the editorship of Dr. James Morris."


 * Chair, E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation